FEDERAL SECTOR REPORT

Requests for Information
Federal News Bytes
Action Workshops
Consulting Services

REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION

Have you noticed? The federal government is announcing a bevy of Requests for Information (RFIs). Check out FedBizOpps, and you are likely to bump into them.

The RFI: A trend in Federal Contracting

Federal acquisition reform and streamlining encourages agencies to rely more on industry information and comments. Rather than simply defining requirements and issuing a Request for Proposals, an agency may instead develop and release a RFI, which may serve a variety of purposes, such as:

    * Conducting market research to identify what kinds of product or service solutions are commercially available
    * Asking industry to offer solutions for agency requirements or objectives
    * Collecting information about relevant companies, their capabilities, products, and experience
    * Determining whether there are qualified small businesses or 8(a) firms to make a set-aside feasible
    * Exploring the types of contract vehicles that might be available.

 Why RFI's Are Smart for Agencies

It isn't necessary for agencies to "play God" anymore. They don't need an omniscient understanding of the best solutions, methods, technologies, products, and work plans. Rather than cast specifications and performance requirements in stone (in a Request for Proposals), they can ask interested companies for their advice and recommendations. The result is an interactive model ... where agency representatives and potential competitors bat the information back and forth several times. The final Work Statement or specifications may indeed be an evolutionary process where the result is far better than either the government or the successful offeror could have imagined when the RFI was first issued.

Six Tips for Contractors

Working with Cornet Technology, Inc., an 8(a) contractor with an acquisition support contract, we have recently written a RFI for an agency and have seen the process first hand. For the potential contractors who respond, the RFI may appear informal but it is actually very structured and serious. Here are six tips for contractors:

   1. Find out the purpose of each RFI and evaluate the potential of your winning an award from the process. You need to screen and target your responses as carefully as you do when you reply to Requests for Proposals. If you aren't selective, you may waste your money.
   2. Follow the instructions precisely. Most RFIs provide directions about what information to submit. Follow the instructions exactly, and present your information in the same order as requested by the government. Treat each information element as if it were an evaluation criterion--because you may be judged on how completely you respond to each and all elements.
   3. Package your response as carefully as you would a competitive proposal.
   4. Contact the contracting officer managing the RFI and express your interest in following through with a meeting, a presentation, or a demonstration of your product, service, or solution. In some cases, the RFI process will permit interaction, and personal contact is almost always better than relying on written information.
   5. If you pursue RFIs regularly, streamline your process for responding. Figure that you may need to submit three or four RFIs for every instance where you actually pursue a contract award. You will need to determine how to produce on-target RFIs without spending too much money.
   6. Let the government know about your contract vehicles. If you are a small, minority, and/or woman-owned business, let the government know that also. In some cases, competition may be streamlined. You want to let the government know about all of the available options for accessing your company.

FEDERAL NEWS BYTES

The Office of Management and Budget has been issuing guidelines for implementation of Government Information Security Reform, part of Title X of the national defense reauthorization legislation that was enacted in calendar year 2000. The cyber security requirements are much more comprehensive than the previous Presidential directive (PDD-63), and most of the added responsibilities are placed at the doorstep of agency Chief Information Officers.

Regardless of whether you work for the federal government, a contracting firm, or a grantee, you will undoubtedly bump into some of the new computer security requirements. If you sell products or services to the federal government, the new requirements may be a major marketing opportunity. For additional information, go to www.cio.gov and look up the working group on computer security.

Do take the computer security requirements seriously. Cyber theft, terrorism, vandalism, and invasion of privacy are very real threats that present the risk of disrupting government operations, national defense, and/or the economy.

SCHEDULE AN ACTION WORKSHOP

Why settle for someone's off-the-shelf seminar or workshop? A P2C2 Action Workshop focuses on empowering your organization's team to accomplish a clearly defined result ... such as an action plan, budget, or OMB document.  Here's how it works:

   1. We meet with you to define the results and who from your organization should participate
   2. We develop the process and workshop materials ... which you review and approve
   3. We lead a one-day workshop to provide orientation, advice, and team assignments
   4. Your team members spend a week (at least part time) preparing their input for the planned results
   5. We reconvene the group, critique the progress, coach members individually, and help the group plan for closure to achieve results
   6. Your team compiles a draft product.
   7. We review the product and make detailed recommendations for improvements
   8. Your team prepares the final, desired result
   9. We jointly prepare a "lessons learned" summary which helps your organization institutionalize the knowledge gained.

For a group of 10 or 12, our fee may be significantly below the cost of sending your team to off-the-shelf seminars!

LINK OF THE MONTH

We surfed to www.proposalwriter.com and were pleased with the range of help offered to organizations who are exploring how to develop winning proposals for federal contracts and grants. We gained a chuckle over the FAQ … because the web site obviously receives some of the same naive questions that find their way to the P2C2 Group, like "how do I get a federal grant so I can start a business?"

The greatest delight was discovering that Deborah Kludge, the principal consultant at www.proposalwriter.com, subscribes to the P2C2 Group's newsletter. We also reminisced about mutual friends like Herman Holtz, who wrote dozens of books on topics like consulting and proposal writing.

CONSULTING SERVICES

We provide enterprise-level management consulting services for federal agencies and the contractors who support them. Our areas of specialization are Capital Planning and Investment Control, Enterprise Architecture, strategic planning, performance evaluation, and acquisition support including work statements. Our consulting specialty includes experience in many related areas such as CIO program support, earned value management, risk management, the C&A process for security, and customer satisfaction surveys.

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